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Your Guide to the Best Things in San Diego, 2024 | San Diego Magazine

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Your Guide to the Best Things in San Diego, 2024 | San Diego Magazine


By Danielle Allaire, Sara Clemence, Beth Demmon, Randy Dotinga, María José Durán, Leorah Gavidor, Cherie Gough, Mateo Hoke, Troy Johnson, Lili Kim, Marissa Kozma, Kai Oliver-kurtin, Nicolle Monico, Cole Novak, Amanda Parmele, Will Riddell, Amelia Rodriguez, Jay Smith, and Claire Trageser

A solar eclipse may have blocked out most of SD’s legendary sunlight a few months back, but our city is shining brighter than ever. Michelin bestowed a constellation of stars on our always-innovative food scene.

The city’s sports fever heated up, drawing two more pro teams to the landscape. Locals joined hands to pull a few beloved institutions from the brink (see Coop’s and The Harp). A mega revamp of a particular iconic North Park hotel beckoned hordes of visitors—and a gazillion international eyes. Even orcas want to live here.

And when disaster struck—catastrophic flooding, especially in the county’s most under-resourced areas—San Diegans came together to save and rebuild the lives of those impacted. Courageous residents helped rescue grandmas. GoFundMes got funded. Volunteers scooped away water and cleared debris.

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Then, we kept pushing this place forward, creating community and starting small businesses and making more and more cool things. Here are over 100 of the coolest of them. Check ’em out, then go forth and make your own list. Or start your own thing. This town’s big enough for all of us.

Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Retail & Shopping | Health & Fitness | Kids & Family | Reader’s Picks


Courtesy of the Gaslamplighter

Best Upgraded Take on Your Fave Dive

Gaslamplighter

Gaslamplighter is more than a glammed-up karaoke palace with a not-hyped-enough burger (a double-stack of juicy Wagyu beef served in a O’Brien’s strikes again. One of the Louis Vuitton knockoff). It’s a fifth-generation San Diego success story. Owner Frankie Scuito’s great-great-great grandparents opened San Diego’s first first deli with a liquor license, and his uncle and dad brought us the dark, cozy karaoke icon The Lamplighter. For the sister concept, Scuito and his brother put in ultra-upscale roaring-’20s décor, enlisted the city’s top cocktail minds, and garnered all the Gloria.


San Diego Futbol Club soccer player standing on Snapdragon Stadium ahead of their inaugural 2025 season in the MLS
Courtesy of San Diego FC

Best Team That Hasn’t Won A Single Game… Yet

San Diego FC

Soccer and San Diego are pretty tight right now. That bond will continue to grow when San Diego FC joins MLS in 2025 as the league’s 30th team. The club will look to cultivate homegrown talent like local teenage goalkeeper Duran Ferree) and give San Diego its first major sports championship since 1963. Oh, and one more thing: The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a part-owner of the club, is now just the second Native American tribe in the country to have an ownership stake in a pro sports team.


Best of San Diego 2024 featuring an aerial view of the $1 Billion Chula Vista Bayfront Project
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

Best Bay-utification

Don’t get us wrong—roadwork and city renovations aren’t always our idea of positive news (especially when they add 15 minutes to our commute to work). But this $1.2 billion bayside project in Chula Vista is promising to be worth leaving the house a little earlier. Scheduled for completion in 2025, the redevelopment will include a new park, resort, convention center, RV resort, and residential area, creating space for locals and visitors to enjoy Chula Vista to the fullest.


The Best of San Diego 2024: Health & Outdoors featuring Fit4Mom fitness classes for mom's post childbirth
Courtesy of Fit4Mom

Best Postpartum Power-lift

Fit4Mom

Held outdoors in the fresh air, Fit4Mom’s stroller-based classes incorporate resistance bands and structures like stairs, curbs, and walls to get mamas moving. Headquartered in San Diego, the fitness company has eight franchise locations across the county and more than 250 nationwide. Especially popular among new mothers on maternity leave and stay-at-home parents with young kids, Fit4Mom is a great avenue to make mom friends, seek parenting advice, and ease back into exercise postpartum.


Best of San Diego 2024 Kids & Family featuring Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas
Courtesy of Coastal Roots Farm

Best Day in the Dirt

Coastal Roots Farm

Everyone needs to get their hands dirty sometimes. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday mornings, parents cart their little ones to Coastal Roots nonprofit Jewish community farm in Encinitas for Nature Play. Designed for kids ages zero to 10 and their families, the program is run by farm staff, who oversee interactive storytime, animal encounters like feeding chickens, and other sensory activities, including play in the outdoor “kitchens.” Afterward, stop by their pay-what-you-can farm stand (those in need can get up to $30 of produce free) to take home organic veggies and herbs.


Best of San Diego 2024 Reader's Picks featuring the Little Italy farmer's market
Courtesy of Little Italy Mercado

See our reader’s top picks across the city





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San Diego, CA

Game 21: San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Angels

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Game 21: San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Angels


San Diego Padres (14-7) at Los Angeles Angels (11-11), April 19, 2026, 1:07 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Angel Stadium – Anaheim, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Solans, Luna, Guilavogui help RSL beat slumping San Diego, extend unbeaten streak to 6 games :: WRALSportsFan.com

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Solans, Luna, Guilavogui help RSL beat slumping San Diego, extend unbeaten streak to 6 games :: WRALSportsFan.com


— SANDY, Utah (AP) — Sergi Solans had two goals and an assist, Diego Luna added a goal and two assists, and Real Salt Lake beat San Diego FC 4-2 on Saturday night to extend its unbeaten streak to six games.

Morgan Guilavogui scored his first goal in MLS and had an assist for Real Salt Lake (5-1-1). The 28-year-old designated player has five goal contributions in his first six career games.

RSL hasn’t lost since a 1-0 defeat at Vancouver in the season opener.

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San Diego (3-3-2) has lost three in a row and is winless in five straight.

Luna opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he re-directed a misplayed pass by Duran Ferree, San Diego’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, into the net.

Moments later, Solans headed home a perfectly-placed cross played by Luna from outside the right corner of the 18-yard box to the back post to make it 2-0. Solans, a 23-year-old forward, flicked a header from the center of the area inside the right post and past the outstretched arm of Ferree to make it 3-1 in the 37th minute.

Guilavogui slammed home a first-touch shot to give RSL a three-goal lead in the 45th.

Marcus Ingvartsen scored a goal in the 14th minute and Anders Dreyer converted from the penalty spot in the 66th for San Diego.

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Ingvartsen has five goals and an assist this season and has 10 goal contributions (seven goals, three assists) in 16 career MLS appearances.

Rafael Cabral had three saves for RSL.

Ferree finished with five saves.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

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How San Diego Has Quietly Emerged as One of America’s Great Dining Destinations

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How San Diego Has Quietly Emerged as One of America’s Great Dining Destinations


When John Resnick opened Campfire on a quaint little street in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2016, some locals weren’t sure what to think. The coastal enclave wasn’t exactly awash in innovative, chef-driven establishments, so it was a shock to see the dining room consistently full. Early on, one woman wondered aloud to Resnick, “Where did all these people come from?”

It’s a moment he remembers vividly. “I was struck by her statement, because I think she was surprised that so many other people in Carlsbad were there,” Resnick says. 

The rest of the culinary world would take some time to catch up to what was happening. In 2019, when Michelin expanded to rate restaurants throughout all of California—not just the San Francisco area—Addison was the only one in San Diego to earn a star. But since emerging from the pandemic, the region’s food scene has grown dramatically. Driven by outstanding farms, ingredients, a bumper crop of talented chefs, and a G.D.P. approximately the size of New Zealand or Greece, San Diego County has become one of America’s most underrated dining destinations.

Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.

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Gage Forster

Perhaps no single restaurant is a better emblem for this shift than chef William Bradley’s Addison, which opened in 2006. After landing his first star, Bradley knew he wanted more. To get them, he transformed his French-leaning fare to serve what he calls California Gastronomy, which combines the cultures of SoCal with impeccable ingredients and wildly impressive techniques, prizing flavor over flair. Michelin responded, awarding Addison a second star in 2022, and making it the first Southern California three-star restaurant just a year later. The accolade has created a halo effect, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.

Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.

Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.

Eric Wolfinger

“Earning three stars forces the global dining community to pay attention to a place that may not have been on their radar before,” says chef Eric Bost, a partner in Resnick’s four Carlsbad establishments. 

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Resnick recruited Bost, who spent time at award-winning outposts of Restaurant Guy Savoy, to run Jeune et Jolie, which he led to a star in 2021. They’ve since taken over an old boogie-board factory down the street and converted it to an all-day restaurant and bakery, Wildland. The space also hosts an exquisite tasting-counter experience called Lilo, which was given a Michelin star mere months after opening in April 2025. And as Resnick and Bost grew their successful Carlsbad operation, chef Roberto Alcocer earned a Michelin star for his Mexican fine-dining spot Valle in nearby Oceanside.

The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.

The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.

Kimberly Motos

About 25 miles to the south, another affluent coastal community is going through its own culinary glow up. In La Jolla, chef Tara Monsod and the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective opened the stylish French steakhouse Le Coq. Chef Erik Anderson, formerly of Michelin two-star Coi, is preparing to launch Roseacre. And last year, Per Se alums Elijah Arizmendi and Brian Hung left New York to open the elegant tasting-menu restaurant Lucien, lured by the ingredients they’d get to serve. “A major reason we chose San Diego is the quality and diversity of the produce,” Arizmendi explains. “San Diego County has more small farms than anywhere else in the U.S., and its many microclimates allow farmers to grow an incredible range of ingredients year-round.”

Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.

Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.

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Gage Forster

Chef Travis Swikard has also been a tireless advocate for the region’s ingredients since he returned to San Diego, his hometown, and opened Mediterranean-influenced Callie in 2021. There’s no sophomore slump with his latest effort, the French Riviera–inspired Fleurette in La Jolla, where he’s serving his take on classics like leeks vinaigrette and his San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with local red sheepshead fish and spiny lobster. Its food is bright, produce-driven, and attentive in execution, while the dining room maintains a relaxed and unpretentious style of service. And Swikard sees that approach cohering into a regional style with a strong network of professionals behind it.

“It’s really nice that we are developing our own identity, not trying to be like L.A. or any other market, just highlighting what’s great about the San Diego lifestyle and ingredients,” he says. “Similar to New York, a chef community is starting to develop where chefs are supporting each other. There is a true sense of pride to be cooking here.”

Top: In La Jolla, Lucien serves ocean whitefish with tomatoes turned into concasse, sabayon, and other expressions.





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